Are You Shopping Amazon's "Secret" Brands?

It's almost back to school season, and for those of us who like to be informed consumers, Quartz has done some serious retail thesis work this summer — and we need to hit the books. Because it turns out that one of the world's largest online retailers has been prolifically studious about its marketing this year, so there's a little homework to pass the "who owns who" brand name test.

We've done a fair bit of posting about the various products and services launched by Amazon so far in 2017, from Prime Wardrobe to Amazon Basics, Audible for Dogs and more, but the reporters at Quartz have really done some deep digging and investigative reporting into the question of who actually owns many of the new, affordable brands popping up all over the ubiquitous retailer's online marketplace.

Trawling through over 800 trademarks that Amazon has either been awarded or applied for through the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Quartz identified 19 brands that are owned by Amazon and sell products or have product pages on Amazon.com — including a few we previously disclosed and many that were new to us, as well.

Quartz also identified another list of 10 additional brand names that Amazon is currently in the process of trademarking (or already owns the copyright/trademark to), as well as another nine brand names that are only available on Amazon.com and nowhere else on the internet, hinting at the fact that they may be owned outright by Amazon — especially because they all seem to "list the same address for an incorporation company in Delaware as their address on the USPTO's website."